OVER 60 INDIVIDUALS TO BE CALLED TO ASSIST INVESTIGATION ON FATAL FRU ACCIDENT - POLICE

TELUK INTAN, May 14 (Bernama) -- Police will record statements from more than 60 individuals to assist in the investigation into the accident that claimed the lives of nine Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) members on Jalan Chikus-Sungai Lampam yesterday morning.

Lower Perak police chief ACP Dr Bakri Zainal Abidin said his department would call FRU members who were at the scene of the accident as well as the owner of the lorry company to assist in the investigation.

"This is to avoid biased investigations and so on. I also call on the public to come forward to provide information that can assist our investigation.

"We will look at (the investigation) from all angles, namely human negligence, technical issues involving the vehicle as well as environmental issues," he said when met by reporters after the completion of the remand application for the lorry driver in the Magistrate's Court here today.

Meanwhile, Bakri said an FRU member from Unit 5 Ipoh was placed in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital Ipoh due to internal bleeding with head and abdominal injuries. 

According to Bakri, eight more injured FRU prsonnel are currently still seeking treatment at Teluk Intan Hospital.

Earlier, in the incident at about 8.50 am yesterday, a lorry carrying gravel crashed into a truck carrying 18 FRU members who were on their way back to Ipoh after completing their duties in conjunction with the Chitrapournami festival here.

The horrific accident resulted in nine FRU members being killed, two seriously injured and seven others injured.

-- BERNAMA